Doctor Merar paused just a moment and took in his patient laying on the bed, his adoptive mother at his side. Victoria was trying to cool her son's fever by bathing his skin, but she was having a hard time finding areas that weren't scraped, bruised or bleeding.
This boy is a mess, Doc Merar thought to himself. Again. Doc Merar shook his head in mute disbelief. No matter how many times he was summoned out to that Barkley ranch, it amazed him how often it was to see this patient. Then again, Nick was just as trauma prone. These Barkley men seemed to live life on their own terms. The cost of getting their way in so many things seemed to be taking the required lumps on a alarmingly regular basis.
Merar took in the new injuries that overlapped scars long healed. If only Heath Barkley didn't try so hard to make up for lost time since joining this family.
Pulling the sheet back further, Merar took in the almost circular bruising along Heath's right side. The shoulder wound had been cleaned and a light bandage reapplied. He pulled up the bandage gently to reveal the wounds underneath. Angry red lines coursed from the small entry wound. A tiny trickle of blood leaked from the wound. He did not see a tell tale lump where a bullet may have settled just under the surface. Only one of two options, the doctor thought. Either the bullet was lodged deeper in the wound and nestled against the bone or…"
"Through and through, Victoria?"
"Yes, the exit wound is far worse, Howard. We've been afraid to turn him over. The pain from what we think is a broken rib seems to occur whenever we shift his weight. More alarmingly, his breathing gets more labored as well."
Heath, though conscious, had been too tired to do more than simply follow the conversation - his eyes simply shifting between the two others in the room. His mother was speaking so dispassionately that he might have been fooled into believing that she was completely composed if not for the slight tremor in her hand as she passed the cloth over his skin.
"Let's take a look at those ribs and then I'll know what my options are." The doctor moved to Heath's right side and gingerly palpitated the bruised area, starting from the outside of the area and slowly working his way toward the area of most severe trauma.
"How did this injury happen, Heath?"
"Wasn't wild about… getting gagged."
Merar had noticed the raw marks on either side of the blond's mouth that were now explained by this remark. Still, it did not clarify the semicircular bruise on his chest. The doctor sighed and pinned his patient back with a sharp look.
"Well you might say… he did some leaning with that knee of his… to kind'a persuade me to unhinge my jaw a bit. I heard a… snap when he shifted to get back up on his feet."
Just as Heath finished his explanation, the doctor probed an area that should have been rigid beneath his exploring fingers. Instead, with a little pressure, it gave way like pressing on a soaked sponge.
Victoria was alarmed when Heath's body went rigid and his eyes glazed over with pain. But the only sound her son made was a soft groan as the doctor released the pressure on his ribs.
The doctor stood up straight and ran a finger over his chin, deep in thought. Absently, he remarked, "That snap was two ribs not one. I could wrap you ribs, Heath, but you've lost a lot of blood and you're shoulder is badly infected. The wrap would ease your pain, but I've seen others in a less weakened condition develop pneumonia due to the restrictions on breathing caused by wrapping their ribs."
Heath nodded agreement. He'd seen what the doctor described happen to men with similar injuries in the mines.
"But that leaves us with the problem of treating the wound on your back, Heath. I'm loath to roll you over, as one of those ribs, under pressure, might do the damage it's been threatening to your lung. I think we can manage if we temporarily wrap your ribs and sit you up. Then I can get behind you and cut out the infected areas and clean and dress your wound."
"Sounds like a plan… What's… what's the hold up?"
The doctor's business-like attitude softened as he explained. "Heath, boy. There's just no way around it. You took quite a knock to that noggin of your - you have a concussion. Though you're alert right now, you're eyes are still not reacting to light as I would ike. Normally, I'd put you under anesthesia to clean out that shoulder. But given your head injury, I just can't risk it. It's gonna hurt pretty bad, boy, but I'll be a fast as possible."
"Rather…rather you be thorough… than… fast."
The doctor chuckled and Victoria shook her head in disbelief at her son's ability mock his own misfortune.
Marveling at the strength of this young man, the doctor was grateful for it, as he thought the boy would need it before his recovery was complete.
"There may come a point that you'll be hoping that I'm fast, you young rascal." Howard turned to Victoria. "He'll need someone to lean against and I think you're a mite too small for the task. Could you get Nick up here to help us out?" Victoria nodded and left the room.
Heath started to try to sit up on his own. "I can do this… Doc. No sense… in bothering my brother." Heath tried, but the doctor's hand on his shoulder stopped his progress.
"Heath, I'm the ramrod on this job here and you'll be taking my orders for the foreseeable future."
Heath favored the doctor with a ghost of a smile. "Maybe…improvement from taking orders from… Nick."
"What's this I hear? Lolling in bed and complaining about my orders?" The decibel level in the room increased as Nick blew in like a cool summer shower. "I hear this poor broken down cowboy is in need of a strong shoulder to lean on."
Heath directed a long-suffering look at his mother who simply smiled, closed her eyes and shook her head. Then Victoria turned to Nick. "You're going to sit down next to your brother and follow Howard's orders, Nick. You can kindly spare me the lip that you seem so overly fond of giving your brother."
The devilish smile he gave his mother belied his contritely affirmative, "Yes, Mother."
But sitting on the bed and getting a closer look at Heath sobered the darkly handsome cowboy. Heath was pale as the sheet underneath him. Upon seeing his bother's smile melt into lines of concern, Heath favored him with a weak smile that Nick returned with a shallow imitation of the grin he was wearing as he entered the room. The doctor lifted Heath from behind as Nick put his hands under the injured man's arms and hoisted him up until his brother was sitting facing him. Slowly the doctor tightly secured a wrap around Heath's chest to secure the broken ribs.
Though Heath's eyes were closed, Nick noted that his breathing had shallowed and a bright sheen of sweat coated his face. When the doctor finished, Heath opened his eyes. Pain-glazed blue eyes looked into his big brother's.
"Best… is yet to come…big brother."
Nick could barely swallow over the lump that had formed in his throat, much yet respond to Heath's hard-fought bravado. Instead he reached a hand up to this brother's shoulder and gently rubbed it, wishing like hell he could take on the pain Heath was suffering. As the doctor took off the soiled bandage, the horrific smell of the necrotic flesh drew Nick's attention down to his brother's wound. He almost gagged as he saw the discolored strips of flesh and infection leeching from the wound. His mother gasped, her had flying to her mouth.
Nick felt his brother's body tense as the doctor said gently, "Steady, Victoria."
Heath knew she was a strong woman, but he hated to put her though this.
"I'm fine, Howard. Just tell me which instrument you need and what you want me to do."
"That's just fine, Victoria. Heath, why don't you lean into your brother? It'll help."
With a false sense of humor Nick persuaded, "Come on Heath. I didn't tell anybody about you falling off your horse - twice. I won't tell anyone that you go around hugging guys."
Sighing as much as his bound ribs would allow, Heath leaned into Nick, who secured an arm around his brother's waist. Heath's chin came to almost rest just above his slightly taller brother's shoulder.
"Yeah, Nick…you're great at keep'n secrets. For the record, doc, I was shot off the first time and passed out the second. Don't think that qualifies…as fall'n."
The doctor's first strokes with the knife were to the infected areas where the tissue was dead and the cuts caused little pain. But as the procedure progresses, it was imperative that the doctor cut past the dead tissue to ensure that he removed it all. As each swipe of the blade drove deeper, Heath jerked into his brother's immoveable wall of a chest. His right hand that had been lying on the bed, at his side, reached up and grabbed a handful of his brother's shirt, twisting it tighter and tighter with each flash of pain. But, barely more than the softest groan passed his lips.
Nick kept murmuring words of encouragement, though even he was not sure what he was saying. As Nick looked down at the doctor's hands working on Heath's back, he could make out the blood now running freely down his brother's back again. It wasn't until his mother reached up and gently wiped his face that he realized why he couldn't make our clearly any of the details. He was crying.
It was like a knife to her mother's heart to see both of her sons suffering so. Victoria knew that for all his bluster, Nick could be such a gentle soul. Heath had fought hard to find a place in his brother's heart and the bond now seemed almost symbiotic in nature. Nick's next words interrupted her thoughts."
Whispering into his brother's ear, Nick pleaded, "Please Heath, let go. We don't need a good, tough soldier here. The fight's over, boy. Let go. Heath. It's, OK. Just let go."
His throat and voice raw with unshed tears and pain, Nick looked at his mother. "Why can't he just pass out, mother?" Looking up, Nick pleaded, "God, please."
As if in answer, Heath's hand relinquished it's grip on Nick's shirt and fell to his side. His whole body melted into his brother's support and his head rested into the curve of Nick's neck. Reaching up, Nick cupped his brother's head and turning his own he placed the gentlest of kisses on the golden head. The doctor finished excising the debris and infection from the wound. Staunching the bleeding yet again, he bandaged the wound and then gently unwrapped Heath's ribs and helped Nick carefully lay the unconscious man back into the bed.
Heath lay now pale but beyond pain as the doctor did yet another check of this vitals. Victoria was amazed at how the boy lying before them resembled a golden angel - blessed enough to inspire the love of the strong man that stood before her.
Finally tearing his eyes away from his brother, Nick graced his mother with a watery smile. "You'll be happy to hear that I won't be skipping church on Sundays any time soon. And for good measure, I promised to leave the singing to the other members of the family that some think are better suited to it. That seemed to be agreeable to Him."
Victoria opened her arms and Nick walked into them - as he had as a boy of so many years ago - to get his tears kissed away, once again.
TBC…As a reward for all the good work that Doc Merar does for the Barkley family, I thought that I would give him some insight into 21st century medicine as doctor's rarely wrap broken ribs to prevent the very complications (except in the movies – cause it looks so good on the heroes) that Dr. Merar remarked on earlier in the story.